Two Years?

This is intimidating on so many levels. If Tebow can write a whole book about his life, surely I can handle a few paragraphs, right?? I can’t believe it’s been two years since I left Gainesville, but I’ll do my best to catch you up.

I left the country two weeks after walking across that stage for the most challenging and rewarding adventure of my life... at least up to that point. I moved to South India, where my “job” was to teach music to elementary and middle school students in a small international school. I’m fairly certain I learned a lot more than they did, but the musical at the end of the semester was a hit ☺ I spent the rest of my time building relationships, developing an evangelism curriculum, and helping out with a slum and orphan care ministry. I loved the culture and the friendships and being able to focus entirely on my relationship with Christ and sharing Him with other people. I had no idea what each day would hold, what people I would meet, and what animals I would encounter, but I will save monkey, cobra, and cow stories for another day.





The excitement and sense of adventure made coming back even more difficult though. To go from that to a desk job was not the easiest transition for me, but I was thankful for a great job working with a ministry called New Missions. They work in Haiti, but I was in their stateside office in Orlando. I first worked in donor relations and processed donations, but eventually became the volunteer coordinator.

The best part was being able to be home for a while, and God definitely confirmed that it was where I needed to be and why. My sweet brother-in-law proposed to Lindsey a couple weeks after I got home. The next five months consisted of planning and fittings and tastings, and I could not imagine missing that season of her life. She got married on New Year’s Day 2011. It was a great night, but it’s been even more fun watching them learn and grow since then. I’m glad she’s figuring out the secrets first ☺



Three days after that, doctors confirmed that a lump in my mom’s breast was cancer. Not the best news for Linds and Bryan to receive when they returned home from their honeymoon. My bosses were incredibly gracious and allowed me to join her for every appointment, test, and surgery as we prayed about what would be next. She approached it all with strength and grace that amazed me, and decided to fight it as aggressively as possible. When she went into surgery for a radical mastectomy, I had no doubt that would be the end of that scary journey. Then the doctor came out and shared that he could tell the cancer was in her lymph nodes. This meant a couple of things. Once cancer cells reach that point, they can go anywhere. It also meant that treatment would be much more extensive than we had hoped. Chemo started as soon as she had recovered enough, but again, God was faithful and she was incredible, and our family became closer than ever. She is now healthy and beautiful. And completely rocking the short hair.



Not too long after her diagnosis, a friend from Morristown came to Disney World and invited me to come hang out for a little while. We had gotten back in touch while I was in India and she was serving in China with a ministry called Show Hope. We were both passionate about orphan care and adoption, so we had lots to catch up on. At some point during the day, we joked about how I needed to move the Nashville and work for Show Hope. I didn’t think too much about it until a few weeks later, when I got a text saying the president of the organization wanted my resume. Conversations and interviews started soon after. The timing seemed absolutely insane, but in so many ways, this was my dream job in a city I loved. My family was cautious, but encouraged me to move ahead and see how God led. I had the opportunity to work with people I loved and respected and be a part of orphans coming home to their families. Show Hope runs care centers for special needs orphans and provides grants to help families overcome the financial barriers to adoption. As crazy as it all seemed at the beginning, God graciously worked out the details and I moved south of Nashville the day after my mom’s last chemo treatment.

So that’s where I am now. Franklin, Tennessee, to be more exact. It is a great little town and I have loved settling in and figuring out life on my own. I am living alone for the first time in my life and I’m a huge fan. I’m learning how to use a power drill and I don’t know that I’ve ever felt a greater sense of accomplishment than when I put up a window treatment. Honestly, it will be really tough to live with people ever again! I’ll need some extra grace if God provides a husband. My title at work is “Sponsor Liaison”, which means I communicate with donors if there are any issues and coordinate volunteers when the founder of the ministry has concerts all over the country. I’ll also get to lead occasional mission trips to a couple different places. This move was not something I saw coming, but I feel so blessed to be doing what I am doing.



That doesn’t mean it’s always easy though. I work with some great girls and have good friendships, but I haven’t found community like I had in school and in Orlando. I need accountability, which is something that’s not happening too much at the moment. It's also been tough to be away from family, especially as we process the loss of my grandfather in September. The whole guy/dating/relationship has been a challenge too. There aren’t single guys just hanging out in the adoption world, and I just don’t meet too many that are possibilities. Most of you probably know that I sincerely believed I would marry the guy I dated my last year in school. Clearly that is not what happened, and the thought of being wrong again terrifies me. So I’m hesitant. Trying to trust. And determined to have a great time in this season. I get to experience adventures and an intimacy with my Savior that not everyone does. I want to savor it and learn all I can now. So pray for that when you think about it ☺

This is so much longer than I planned. Sorry, but thanks for reading if you made it through. I love and miss you all dearly. You always have a place to stay when you’re in Nashville, and I am up for hosting a reunion anytime. Praying the new year is a blessed one for each of y'all!

Real Life

Hello Dear Friends,

I miss you. College friendships are so unique and wonderful. Going in we know that at most we'll get to spend about four years together, and eventually drift to different parts of the country (or in our case, the ends of the earth) because of more school, jobs, family. Even still, the magic of college life somehow allows for friendships to grow and develop into relationships with all of the dimensions and flavorings of a wine that has aged well beyond its years.

Now that I'm in the "real world," I almost envy that phenomena.

Last summer I graduated, went to Haiti on a mission trip, and married my best friend all in a span of about two weeks. After a wonderful honeymoon in Jackson Hole we moved to Cary, NC (just outside of Raleigh). Trung had a great job lined up with a traffic engineering consulting firm, and I was certain I would find something soon after we moved in. After a slow and hard job search, I interviewed for an AmeriCorps position with Habitat for Humanity in Chapel Hill. Even though I knew it would only be a temporary job, the position seemed like a good match for my skill set and background. What do I do at Habitat? That depends on the day, no--the hour, you ask me!

By title I am the Youth Programs & Faith Relations Coordinator. The type of work I do could be called program development, fundraising, and event planning. There are two different Youth programs I work with. One program works with the school district in the northern part of the county. Classrooms across grade levels incorporate issues like affordable housing, poverty, etc. into the curriculum. I help facilitate lesson plans, sometimes make presentations to schools about Habitat, and serve as a liason between teachers and Habitat. The schools also fundraise, and one of the high schools has a construction program through which the students build a Habitat home every year. This program is in its third year, and it's my job to sustain it. The other youth program is geared toward the school district in the southern part of the county, church youth groups, civic groups like girl scouts and YMCA, and local youth sports teams. I am helping to create this program, and also secured a $10,000 matching grant for the program to start well. I work with a lot of high schoolers, and sometimes they manage to stress me out. Who would have thought? ;)

As for the faith relations part of my job, I get to work with a lot of churches. It's quite awesome! Churches sponsor homes as well as rehab projects we do through funding and volunteer support. I help maintain relationships with several churches, as well as scout and start new relationships with churches in the community. I love working for a faith-based organization, and being a part of nonprofit that is making a very tangible difference in the community that I live in. The Habitat office I work for, does some incredible things. We work with UNC Chapel Hill often. Below is the link to a video of a campus wide project we did.

http://vimeo.com/16180607

I have had the opportunity to grow and learn so much in the short time that I've been there. I am working under a supervisor who has so much wisdom and insight, and it has been a great experience to work under her. After much prayer and thinking, I've decided to commit to another year in the program (you can only serve 2 years). I think another year will not only allow me to see more of my goals come to fruition, but it will give me the chance to continue to grow and develop professionally.

Hmm, this post is getting long, so perhaps I should share a little about marriage. First off, it's wonderful! Secondly, it's real life. What I mean is that when you're dating, and even when you're engaged, you're most likely not living life together. When you get married, suddenly all of your decisions include and affect another person. Yes, even the seemingly small ones. You face areas of life together that are hard enough for one person, like running a home, finances, etc. Needless to say it has been a huge growing process. But I can see God's hand at work in my heart any time conflict or hardship arises. I started reading a book called "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas recently. The theme centers around this question: What if God's purpose for marriage is to make you holy, more than to make you happy? Even though married life is great and I love Trung more than words can say, I am quickly finding that it's not made to satisfy me the way Hollywood paints it. Perhaps that would taint the idea of marriage for some. But I think I like the idea of a heavenly Bridegroom that is so jealous for my heart, he would let nothing on earth fill it. I think deep down my heart rejoices over the fact that even something as beautiful and intimate as a relationship with a spouse could leave me feeling like there's still something bigger and greater and more fulfilling than what I know now. It makes me eager and hopeful for the day I see Him face to face.

As I said earlier, I miss you dearly. It's great to hear where God has all of you! I was a little hesitant about how a blog like this could work, but I'm excited to see how Christ uses this to encourage us. For those of you who haven't posted yet, I know the first entry seems daunting. We have a lot to catch up on. But I urge you for the benefit of your sisters to set aside some time to at least start. If you can't cover every area of your life, start with just one :) Just like those papers in college, sometimes the hardest part is just committing to writing the first sentence.

Here are some glimpses of my life over the past year:

Our Wedding Day

Our snowy honeymoon in Jackson Hole (It was the end of May!!)

The whole family at the gardens at Duke University

Rock climbing on Pilot Mountain (this is a new hobby for Trung and I)

The wonderful team of ladies I work with at Habitat

Some of the high school students I work with (this is out on the Habitat work site)

I need to get creative for this...

Greetings from Gainesville..lol yep, still here.

First off, I am sorry that I stink at keeping in touch(I’ve always been bad at it, but I hope this blog will change that). I really do miss all of you and the community we had in Theta Alpha. I have to agree with Ellie, it feels like a million years ago.

My life…. Well, it certainly has not gone to my plan, but maybe that’s for the best. I know God has a purpose for me being here and working in a preschool but I def. still struggle with it. I still want to be an OT, and over the past year and a half, I have learned a lot of lessons about the real world, responsibility, what I do and don’t want in life and how important community truly is. So here it is... The good, the bad, the ugly…

Family…Good. It’s been a really hard struggle to be in the same house, esp after being on my own. Having almost a curfew and trying to balance time between everyone in my life. I do love my family, and have gotten closer to them but boy its hard sometimes to stay sane

Friends…Not like my Theta Alpha Loves, but I am building a community of close friends that helps me keep sane at times and to remember how faithful God is and that he has a purpose for all of this. Specifically my friend Lindsey J I am also looking at possibly joining a different church and finding a community outside of grace (where I’ve been since 7th grade) where I am challenged more, and can give more and am possibly checking out Anthem church.

So, I guess that leads to God. It’s definitely been a rollercoaster ride full of ups and downs and twist. I pulled away when I graduated, feeling like a failure for not going to grad school, moving back home, working at a preschool and still occasionally wrestle with that feeling. And I think it contributed to how I pulled away from some of you. I didn’t want to hang around Theta Alpha as the alumni that wouldn’t leave and wasn’t in grad school and I didn’t want you guys to see me like that. And that was my loss. I also should have pulling God closer rather than pushing him away and putting up the front that everything was ok and I was still confident. But I am realizing there is a purpose. I have gotten to spend time with family (even if they drive me crazy sometimes) , gotten to develop a relationship with my middle school youth girls, build a stronger relationship with Tanner, and meet some new friends and learn that while it may not be my plan, God has the better one anyway. So if I am called away to another city for grad school or anything else, this time wasn’t wasted.

Work… I still want to be an OT, even if my boss doesn’t lol. She has promoted me to a lead teacher and hopes i will stay. I have my own class of 2 year olds, wow, its actually kinda cool and def a challenge because now I have lesson plans, and standards to meet and to provide a fun but successful learning environment. I still want OT. I am being open to the possibility that God could call me to teach, but will keep pushing forward to OT until he slams the door in my face lol. I want to help people. I want to make a difference and OT and Teaching both accomplish that. Side note, I miss me time. (I’ve been working 7:30-5:30 every day this past week and 8:30-5:30 before that. Add that to being at home or using the last few hrs before bed to hang with tanner or friends or youth or family. Luckily with the position change, my schedule is changing soon.

Last but not least…Tanner. A year and a half and going strong. He knows me better than

anyone, can make me smile or seriously drive me crazy or keep me sane. Calls me out when I need it, comforts and listens and sees right through me even when I don’t want him to. We have our share of fights (some of them knock out drag out ,not literally but we are both stubborn)but we always apologize or stay to work it out. He brings out the kid in me and while most people think im the more mature one, sometimes I think they are wrong. Because the side he doesn’t show most people is more mature than I am. So I can’t complain lol. He wasn’t what I expected God to give me either (hmmm, a pattern maybe?)

Anyways if you didn’t know this about me, I’m stubborn but I’m glad God is more stubborn that I am.

Prayer Request:

~Mom. Her mother passed away a couple weeks ago

~My youth girls.

~Me. That I would build a stronger community and make a difference. To stay positive and grow closer to God and be open to and excited for his direction. It took him pulling me off my own course to stop and realize I need to follow him not the other way around and yet I still try and grab the wheel lol. I’m stubborn but luckily HE is more stubborn than I am

In closing…. Merry Christmas!!! And Post please, if I can do it, u can :P